Chapter Seven
Ava
The rest of the day passes in a haze. I sit through multiple meetings with the marketing department. Sebastian joins me in a few. I try to keep my distance from him and fail. The man is relentless. He always sits next to me, touching my hand or my leg—by accident, of course. He’s smart enough to make it look that way.
The meetings go well. During the first one, I discover his team is pleased with my presence here, which is refreshing. Marketing departments are usually hostile toward me, considering the outside agency an intrusion. This one seems open and eager to collaborate. Good. This means I can concentrate on my job. By the third meeting, I realize it’s not that they are pleased with me; they just don’t like the new marketing manager, Martha, much. She was hired a week ago.
“Why did you hire the marketing manager from outside instead of promoting someone from within the department?” I ask Sebastian after that meeting is over. “Your team doesn’t look very happy.”
“I know, but bringing in new blood can be good. That’s why we decided to work with your consultancy as well. She’s on probation for four months anyway. If it doesn’t work out, she’ll go.”
At six o’clock, I’m utterly exhausted, sitting in my office and going through my notes from today’s meetings. My neck is even stiffer than yesterday. I eye the voucher still lying on my desk, tugging at my lips with my teeth. On a whim, I call the spa. A woman greets me.
“Hello. I have a gift card and I’d like to use it as soon as possible.”
“Why don’t you come by tonight, and we’ll see where we can book you in?”
“This sounds wonderful,” I tell her honestly. I was expecting to wait at least a week. “Can you give me the address?”
As I scribble down her instructions, I realize it’s on the same street as my apartment. Did Sebastian take the time to look up a spa nearby? I can’t believe he gave this so much thought, but it can’t be a coincidence.
“See you in an hour,” I tell her.
Since it rained the entire afternoon, clouds populate the graying silk tarp of sky. I step outside the building, drained of energy. Inhaling deeply, I find the air doesn’t bring the burst of freshness I was hoping for. Heaviness languishes in the air from the earlier rain. Arrows of light descend through the clouds, but it looks like the sky won’t clear today.
***
I make myself a promise as I walk into the spa. I will relax and enjoy this without any remorse for having accepted Sebastian’s gift.
“Hi,” I tell the receptionist. “We spoke on the phone earlier.”
She smiles politely, taking the gift card I hand her. “Yes, we did. What would you like to do while you’re here, Ms. . .?”
“Lindt. I have a really stiff neck. Something to relax my muscles would be great.”
“May I suggest a massage?”
“Sounds like just what I need.”
“I’ll send you to Andrew. He’s the best.” She frowns at her computer screen, clicking around a few times. “He’s free in one hour. What would you like to do in that time? I can fit in a mani-pedi or a facial. Or I can book both and move Andrew an hour later. Your gift card certainly covers the expenses for all those.”
“It does?” How much did Sebastian spend on me? There’s no amount on the card.
“Yes. Shall I book everything?”
I tap my fingers on the counter, pondering my answer for a few seconds. “Okay.”
I avoid thinking about Sebastian in the mani-pedi and the facial, but my will dissolves when I walk inside the massage room. I am naked except for a tiny thong beneath the towel I wrapped tightly around me. Andrew asks me to drop my towel and lie on my stomach on the massage table. He turns his back while I do as he says, and then he covers my butt with the towel. Well, I don’t feel less naked. He pours warm oil on my skin and begins to knead my flesh between his expert hands, and I forget all about shame.
“The neck area keeps giving me problems,” I tell him.
“I’ll concentrate on that.”
As I feel Andrew’s fingers on me, my mind flies to Sebastian’s strong hands. They’d make my entire body burn. His memory alone lights every nerve. His vivid, dark eyes haunt me, and soon I fantasize he’s with me in my hotel room, doing what Andrew does, only moving his hands much lower. I’d let that man do anything to me, and that’s a scary thought. Breathing hard against the towel, I curse aloud, making Andrew jump.
“Sorry, Andrew. I remembered I forgot something at the office,” I lie.
I cannot fantasize about Sebastian Bennett. At any rate, I don’t know much about him. He could be the ultimate playboy. He certainly has the looks for it. I learned early on not to trust men. Dad left Mom before I was even born, leaving her to fend for us both.
A dull ache hovers in my chest. It’s been nine years since she died, and I still miss her every day. While I grew up, it seemed so often that it was the two of us against the world. She never—to my knowledge at least—dated again. It’s not that she instilled in me to mistrust men, it’s that the men I’ve dated gave me reason not to trust them. I’ve always longed to have a large family, but my two long-term relationships ended because the guys cheated on me, and blamed me and my job for it. Finding a decent man and counting on him seems like an impossibility, akin to comfortable high heels or sexy period panties. At thirty-one, I threw in the towel and only count on myself.
Sebastian seems to be every woman’s dream. He’s kind, thoughtful, and intense. Just remembering his piercing stare sends tendrils of heat low in my body. I need to get laid. Badly. It’s been an embarrassing number of months since I last had sex, and I know Sebastian’s proximity will be much easier to bear if I don’t have so much sexual tension bottled up inside me. It’d also be easier if the attraction was one-sided, but I saw how he looks at me. I take a deep breath. Four months. I have to resist for four months; then I’ll be gone.
I leave the massage room, take a wrong turn, and end up in an unfamiliar corridor.
“Excuse me,” I ask a cleaning lady who passes by. “Where is reception? I got lost.”
The woman, petite and in her forties, opens her mouth, but instead of answering, coughs. Furrowing my brow, I study her appearance. Her nose and eyes are puffy—signs of a cold or an allergy. Either way, she’s sick. She gives me directions in a low voice.
“Thank you. Are you okay? You’re very sick. You should take the day off.”
She shakes her head, her eyes widening. “Can’t afford it. I have two little kids back home. I’m much better now, though. I thought I’d collapse a few hours ago when I was waitressing. At least here it’s quiet.”
Gulping, I say, “Take care of yourself. What’s your name?”
“Nora.”
“Have a good day, Nora.” My voice is shaky, and the hair at the back of my neck stands on end as I make my way to the reception. Nora’s determination to give her kids the best and moonlight between jobs hits home too hard.
“Was everything all right?” the receptionist asks.
“Yes, but I want to ask you for a favor. You have a cleaning lady, Nora, who’s sick. Tell her to go home, and that you’ll pay her anyway.”
“Miss, the bosses won’t—”
“I’m paying for it. Here.” I put more bills on the counter than her wage must be, but I don’t care. In fact, I add more bills, struck by an idea. “Also, I want to buy her a gift card for a treatment of her choice here at the spa. Please tell her it’s on the house, though.”
“Why are you doing this, miss?”
I smile, remembering what my mother used to tell me. “Sometimes an act of kindness is enough to keep one going.”
***
“Let’s wrap this up. Good work, everyone,” I say three days later, smiling broadly. There is a sense of accomplishment as the marketing department and I leave the meeting room. I head to my office, glancing inside Sebastian’s as I pass. My stomach constricts slightly. He’s inside. I’ve kept my distance for the past few days, but knowing he works on the other side of the wall makes concentrating a chore. I’ve had the same dream the past two nights. I’m in the massage room again, only Andrew isn’t there. Instead, a man with dark eyes and full lips curled into a smile welcomes me, wearing nothing but a towel.
Around lunchtime, someone knocks at my door. I look up from my computer screen to find Sebastian standing in the doorway.
“Lunch?” he asks.
“I have a lot to do.” It’s not exactly a lie. “I’ll grab something quick later.”
“I see.” He walks inside my office, pushes aside some folders I’d spread out, and sits on the desk. “How is the team treating you? I thought it’d be best if I didn’t join you in all meetings, so you had a chance to work with them without the boss breathing down their necks.”
“I appreciate it. They are very cooperative with me. I think they’ll warm up to the marketing manager too, eventually.”
“I’ll keep an eye on that. Martha has excellent credentials. It’d be a pity if things between her and the team didn’t work out.”
“I agree. She’s very competent.”
Sebastian taps his fingers on the desk, a crease forming on his forehead.
“I went to the spa,” I find myself blurting out. His crease instantly disappears, a smile inching its way across his features.
“Did you enjoy it?” he asks softly. His gaze is anything but soft. He looks at me like a man determined to read my most hidden thoughts, discover my deepest desires.
“Oh yes. You were very generous. Thank you. You were right. I needed a few hours of relaxation badly.”
“What did you do?”
“Many things, but the massage was the best part. The guy, Andrew, had the most amazing hands.”
Sebastian’s eyes narrow. “I know how to give a good massage. I know which points to press to relieve. . .tension.” The last word rolls off his tongue with so much sensuality that I nearly lose control and kiss him on the spot.
I find it within me to roll my chair a little further from him, and decide to confront him. “Are you flirting with me?”
“Yes, I am.”
I back away from the intensity of his gaze. I was expecting him to at least skirt around the subject. But something tells me Sebastian isn’t that kind of man. He’s the kind that gets what he wants, no matter how.
“Sebastian,” I say weakly. “Don’t. I have a no-fraternizing clause in my contract. I’d get fired in a blink for getting involved with you.”
He pauses for a few seconds. “I didn’t know that.”
“Now you do.”
“What if you didn’t have that clause?” He shifts closer to me. I remain silent, and he tilts my chin up to him. “Answer,” he demands. What would it be like to be wanted by a man like him? To be loved by a man who holds so much intensity in his gaze alone?
“I never got involved with clients, not even when I had no such clause,” I stammer. “It’s a matter of principle. Work is work.”
“I never get involved with people I work with either.”
I breathe a sigh of relief. “You’re a smart man. I’m a smart woman. Let’s not do something stupid together.”
“Stupid never sounded more appealing. I want to get to know you, Ava,” he murmurs. I open my mouth, but he holds up his hand. “Hear me out. You’re fun, sweet, and refreshing.”
My breath catches. Licking my lips, I smile. “Is this because I’m not acting all impressed that you’re the CEO and everything?”
“Maybe.” His eyes light up. “I’m looking forward to impressing you.”
“You are very direct.”
Leaning lower, he whispers, “And determined.”
Words fail me. His lips are so close, and I love every word coming out of them.
“Lunch, anyone?” Logan’s voice resounds from the doorway. I jump so violently in my seat I almost knock over the glass of water in front of me. Sebastian catches it, looking as nonchalant as ever.
“Logan. Impeccable timing, as usual.” Sebastian doesn’t take his eyes off me. “Yes, let’s you and I go have some lunch. Ava here doesn’t have time for us.”
I gulp as the two men leave. Four months. I’ll never survive them.